Moto2: Marquez pole at Estoril

By Lisa Lewis

World championship leader Marc Marquez made it two Moto2 poles in a row with a confident qualifying display at the Estoril circuit in Portugal on Saturday.

The CatalunyaCaixa Repsol rider topped the time sheets with 1:40.934 with Swiss rider Thomas Luthi just 0.1 seconds behind in a close Moto2 qualifying session.

Marc VDS Kalex rider Scott Redding continued his good form by qualifying in third, his first front row start since the Aragon grand prix last year.

Redding has finished sixth and fourth so far this season, however this is the first time he has qualified inside the top ten in 2012.

French rookie Johann Zarco remains impressive while making the tricky move up from 125cc racing last year, finishing the session fifth for JiR and Motobi, despite going off track in the uphill section with ten minutes remaining.

Jerez race winner Pol Espargaro qualifies in fifth for the HP Tuenti Pons team on the Kalex while in sixth Andrea Iannone appears to have found the form which saw him finish second in the Qatar season opener for the Speed Master Speed Up team.

Julian Simon seems to now be seeing the benefits of his chassis change to Suter from FTR qualifying seventh for the Blusens team, while a resurgent Toni Elias qualifies his Suter eighth for the Mapfre Aspar team.

Alex De Angelis held on to ninth after spinning out on the Forward Racing machine with just two minutes to go. A last lap dash saw Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter jump up the rankings to complete the top 10.

Japanese rider Takaaki Nakagami crashed late on demoting him to just outside the top ten, in eleventh while French speed up rider Di Meglio also crashed in the closing seconds of the session, but still finished 14th.

British hope Bradley Smith still has work to do putting the Tech 3 13th on the grid, while being just 0.7 seconds off the lead time of Marquez, while fellow Brit Gino Rea finds himself in 25th on the Moriwaki.

Qualifying:

1.Marc MarquezSPA (Suter)1m 40.934s
2.Thomas LuthiSWI (Suter)1m 41.054s
3.Scott ReddingGBR (Kalex)1m 41.278s
4.Johann ZarcoFRA (MotoBI)1m 41.311s
5.Pol EspargaroSPA (Kalex)1m 41.424s
6.Andrea IannoneITA (Speed Up)1m 41.461s
7.Julian SimonSPA (Suter)1m 41.469s
8.Toni EliasSPA (Suter)1m 41.504s
9.Alex De AngelisRSM (Suter)1m 41.536s
10.Dominique AegerterSWI (Suter)1m 41.539s
11.Takaaki NakagamiJPN (Kalex)1m 41.636s
12.Ricard CardusSPA (AJR)1m 41.671s
13.Bradley SmithGBR (Tech 3)1m 41.733s
14.Mike Di MeglioFRA (Speed Up)1m 41.815s
15.Nicolas TerolSPA (Suter)1m 41.841s